Saturn in high definition

Great picture of the Lord of the Rings.

Amazing how fake it looks.

I'd put it as my desktop background if the planet wasn't infamous for eating babies.

reply to post by WhoDat09


Mine too Whodatt..It was one of the first things that I did after discovering the photo

reply to post by Phage


Yeah, I don't know Phage. Some people just can't see things at face value

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by habfan1968

 

The image is a bit confusing.

Remember, we're looking at Saturn with the Sun behind it. We are in the the shadow of the planet. The reason we can see this side of Saturn at all (instead of it being completely black) is because light is reflected by the sunlit portions of the rings.

So the reason the rings disappear is because they are in the shadow of Saturn. We cannot really see them on our side at all, what appears to be rings circling on our side are actually areas on the "surface" of Saturn which are receiving less reflected light from the darker areas of the ring and the "shadow" of those rings from the reflected light from Saturn. The bright rings don't cast the shadows.

This image, from a different viewpoint, might help.

edit on 9/9/2011 by Phage because: (no reason given)

Thank you Phage for shedding some light, so to speak, on the subject

Originally posted by Anonymouth
Best thing you will ever buy in your life, is your first telescope lol, once you do that, it WON'T be your last.

Slap a solar filter / wedge onto a refractor, and watch the sun in white light. Awesome. You don't have to look far for awesome. Moon, Sun.


For planets, you really need a decent reflector (mirrors) and a good EQ mount, say an EQ5 minimum or EQ6.

Slap a DSLR onto a T-Ring and take some exposures.

Cheap, you can do it for $1000 easy, perhaps less.

No, DSLR? Strap on a webcam.


I am sure most people have binoculars, try those out

edit on 9-9-2011 by Anonymouth because: (no reason given)

How very true Anon...I bought my first Dobsonian style when I was just twelve. I have 2 right now a Celestron Nexstar 8...and a Meade 10" LX200-ACF. I love looking at the sky, and tonight I will attempt to locate this supernova, I should have a nice view of the Pinwheel galaxy tonight...crosses fingers..At the moment it is still only a magnitude 10..so we will see

reply to post by Violater1


Too quick to jump on the bandwagon!

It's been explained twice on page two.

the sad thing is, it shouldn't need to be explained.

reply to post by DerbyCityLights


Me too Derby,,,It was one of the first things I did when I saw the picture..you're welcome

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Newbomb Turk

 

How is the fact that this is not a new image (something that some of us are completely aware of) a demonstration of NASA lying? Where has NASA said this is a new image?

apod.nasa.gov...

But why regurgitate old news from a simple photo-shopping session of a 5 year old image? Where are ALL the NASA high-res pics? I personally feel like NASA is hiding and manipulating data. I feel that it is the duty of NASA to make ALL their findings public.

Lets be honest, they have some amazing data but they do not make it readily known to the public.

reply to post by sith9157


If you zoom in it look fake because the bottom left ring next to the planet itself doesnt continoe it stops

Originally posted by XplanetX
God's creation is amazing!

Or is that umm errr... a NASA creation?

I agree Amazing photograph...but something not quite right about it! looks generated.

One expose video on this and there's hundreds of comments that are like "how stupid they think we are?" etc. Yeah thanks for just demonstrating that infact you are stupid for not looking up the information on how the image was taken and composed. Sad really.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by elrey72011

 

Even when I look at Saturn with a telescope I have a hard time convincing myself it's not a cheesy special effect.
It's too weirdly beautiful to be real.

Same here.